7 Answers
7

There is no exact time when Ubuntu is released.

You can find the expected release date on the Release Schedule. In an interview on Ubuntu-User Kate Stewart, the Ubuntu Release Manager at Canonical, outlines how the release announcement works:

The release team needs to do final checks to make sure all the right bits are in the right places, and no blockers have cropped up as a result of the last bug fix or upload. If people are trying to download the images during this final bit of testing, the slower the testing goes (and they run the risk of pulling down a flawed image) and it delays the time until we can actually release.

The official release announce is mailed out to ubuntu-announce maillist. Copies of prior release announces can be found in the mail list archives. Once we hit send on that email, the IRC channel is updated, as is the News & Announcements section on the Ubuntu Forums, a post is made on the release blog, and the Launchpad project is updated.

The simple explanation is, it's not based on time, it's based on the amount of checks they get through.

They first need to distribute the new Ubuntu version to several worldwide servers which will be used as the download sites for users like you and me. After that they update the links for them in ubuntu.com (To avoid having a million users download from the same site at the same time). Normally this takes some hours but afterwards (A couple of hours AFTER they mention the release of the new Ubuntu version) all servers that will help with the download should have the updated version.

Also the exact hour, minute and second is not an exact science. Depends on several factos including if the dev in charge of it gets to work in time (Anything can happen). Depends if the machine that he/she uses works right (Again, anything can happen) and depends if he/she drank his/her morning coffee/red bull/whatever and feels cheery/grumpy to make the final release at that moment (Instead of enjoying the day playing with super mario o super "maria"). What am trying to say is that a lot of things can happen in a day that will not make an exact hour pass for the latest Ubuntu release or any other (Except for the creepy 10.10 which was 10.10.10 at 10:10:10)

We all know the dates are in October (The day varies) or in April (Also the days varies).

+1 for the depends if he drank his/her morning coffee/red bull/whatever and feels cheery to make the final release at that moment (Instead of enjoying the day with some super mario or something). comment.
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jrg♦Apr 27 '11 at 21:50

8

I'd rather spend the day with Super Maria than Super Mario!
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user7182Apr 27 '11 at 23:42

It will be done tomorrow BUT the time depends strongly on what happens to the devs that will be working on releasing the ISO. Some questions that should be made are:

Will they get up early?

Will they eat their breakfast in a happy way?

Will the arrive at work (if they actually have to drive to work)?

Will the PC that they use to create the ISO be in top shape?

Will they just start working on the ISO or start playing video games?

Will they just start working on the ISO or start talking to some friends?

Will they stop playing and talking to some friends and start working on the ISO?

Will the connection to the internet be available when they arrive?

Will the ISO making software work correctly?

Do devs need to go to the bathroom when making an ISO image release of the latest Ubuntu?

Do devs read this crazy answer and think what the hell is wrong with this guy, thus affecting the speed at which they can create the ISO?

All of this questions can have an affect of the time at which Ubuntu 11.10 will be released. We all know is tomorrow but at what time depends on too many factors (getting on time, devs talking to some friends about making the ISO, playing tetris, etc..)

+1 Superb answer for making all smallest factors that may cause a little delay ..might be these are the reasons 14.04 still need some more hours to be available on official site.
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Sushantp606Apr 17 '14 at 7:44

Unless there is a show-stopper then yes it is released tomorrow, when exactly depends and tbh I'm not sure. You could grab most of it now, if its not the final iso already. What I tend to do is install zsync (sudo apt-get install zsync), and grab daily iso images for testing and use zsync to update the iso with the changes between each, thereby saving a lot of bandwidth. Head over to http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ , scroll down and right click copy the url of the image you want to get, but make sure it ends in .zsync
Run a terminal (ctrl alt t) and type zsync paste url here
zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/oneiric-desktop-i386.iso.zsync , for example
It will download the full iso if you don't have it already, and if you do it will only get the differences between the one you want and the one you have. So all you have to do when its released is rename the file you have to the same as the final release name (ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso etc) and use zsync with the url of the final release zsync file to make your iso the same as the final. You may find an iso today is the same as the final tomorrow. Either way its a great tool.

We won't know till they release it... but probably not till the afternoon if their history is anything to follow... but with this release they haven't exactly followed the beaten path... so it is anyones guess...